# İlber Ortaylı

İlber Ortaylı (Turkish:; born 21 May 1947) is a Turkish historian and professor of history of Crimean Tatar origin at the MEF University, Galatasaray University in Istanbul and at Bilkent University in Ankara. In 2005, he was appointed as the director of the Topkapı Museum in Istanbul, until he retired in 2012.

## Biography
### Family and personal life

He was born on 21 May 1947 in a refugee camp in Bregenz, Austria where his parents, Crimean Tatars, had fled to avoid Joseph Stalin's persecution. His family immigrated to Turkey when he was 2 years old. Ortaylı is maternally a descendant of Crimean Tatar Mirza nobility.
He grew up trilingual, learning German from his father and Russian from his mother. As a polyglot historian he is proficient in Turkish, Italian, English, French, Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish, Russian and Latin. His published articles are mainly in Turkish, German and French and a variety of them are translated into English.
During his studies in Turkey, he worked as a travel guide, which, according to him, influenced his approach to history. It cultivated his apprehension in practice and gave him an opportunity "to teach history" to different groups of people with various backgrounds. He credits his experiences as a travel guide in his writing of "popular history" books and essays.
He made acquaintance with intellectuals from both Turkey and other countries. Notable are Halil İnalcık, Irene Melikoff, Bernard Lewis, Andreas Tietze.
His biography Time Does not Disappear: Book of İlber Ortaylı (Turkish: Zaman Kaybolmaz: İlber Ortaylı Kitabı) was published in 2006. The book includes a long journalistic conversation with Nilgün Uysal, passages from his childhood, student years in Ankara, Vienna and Chicago, his recent reflections on near history events and anecdotes from the years when he worked as a travel guide all over Turkey.

### Academic career

Ortaylı started elementary school at St. George's Austrian High School in İstanbul and later transferred to Ankara Atatürk High School. He studied public policy at Ankara University Mekteb-i Mülkiye and later left for Vienna to attend University of Vienna, where he studied both Slavic studies and Oriental studies while he worked with Andreas Tietze. He received his master's degree under the supervision of professor Halil İnalcık at the University of Chicago and obtained his doctorate at Ankara University in the School of Political Sciences.
His doctoral thesis was Local Administration in the Tanzimat Period (1978). After his doctorate, he joined the faculty at the School of Political Sciences of Ankara University. In 1979, he was appointed as associate professor. In 1982, he resigned from his position to protest the academic policy of the government established after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état. After teaching at several universities in Turkey, Europe and Russia, he in 1989 returned to Ankara University and became a professor of history and the head of the department of administrative history, after having worked at Middle East Technical University in 1988.

### Public figure

A key figure in Turkish public discourse, Ortaylı has appeared frequently on television programs, radio shows, and in the press, where he discusses historical issues, current events, and Turkey's place in the modern world. His ability to make history relevant to contemporary discussions has made him a central figure in the intellectual life of Turkey. However, his career has not been without controversy, several of Ortaylı's political positions have been criticized, notably his denial of the Armenian Genocide.

## Work

Ortaylı published numerous articles focused on diplomacy, cultural history and intellectual history. Some examples are:
* Ottoman History
* Russian history (e.g. "Romanovs and Constantinople" and "19th century Russian Empire")
* Ottoman-Habsburg Relations
* German Influence in the 19th century Ottoman Empire (as his masters degree thesis)
* Travel writing In the Ottoman Empire
* History of Turkish Drama
He also published articles on urban history including Latins of the Pera district of the Constantinople for Istanbul and various historical cities which were once under the Ottoman influence; history of provincial administration focusing on the transformation of institutions in the Ottoman Empire from the beginning to the 19th century.

## Awards

In 2001, he received the Aydın Doğan Foundation Award in the field of history, considering his works, articles, and books published since the early 1970s, his efforts to popularize the science of history, his activities to make history beloved by Turkish people of all ages, his scientific activities abroad, and his significant international role in Turkish historiography, in addition to his work Osmanlı Tarihinde Aile (Family in Ottoman History).
In 2007, he received the Medal of Pushkin for his "great contribution to the spread and study of the Russian language, the preservation of cultural heritage and the rapprochement and mutual enrichment of different nations’ and people's cultures" under a decree signed by Vladimir Putin and announced officially by the Kremlin, the ceremony took place at the Russian Consulate in Istanbul.
In 2011, he was chosen as honorary member to the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

## Affiliations

He is a member of the Foundation for International Studies, the Societas Iranologica Europeae, the Austrian and Turkish Academy of Sciences and Tarih Vakfı.

## Books

| Tanzimat'tan Sonra Mahalli İdareler (Provincial administration after Tanzimat) (1974) Türkiye'de Belediyeciliğin Evrimi (Evolution of municipality in Turkey; with İlhan Tekeli, 1978) Türkiye İdare Tarihi (Administrative history of Turkey) (1979) Osmanlı İmparatorluğunda Alman Nüfuzu (German influence in the Ottoman Empire) (1980) Gelenekten Geleceğe (From tradition to the future) (1982) İmparatorluğun En Uzun Yüzyılı (The longest century of the Empire) (1983) Tanzimat'tan Cumhuriyet'e Yerel Yönetim Geleneği (Local administration tradition from Tanzimat to the Republic) (1985) İstanbul'dan Sayfalar (Pages from Istanbul) (1986) Studies on Ottoman Transformation (1994) | Hukuk ve İdare Adamı Olarak Osmanlı Devletinde Kadı (Kadıs as a legal and administrative figures in the Ottoman State) (1994) Türkiye İdare Tarihine Giriş (Introduction to the history of Turkish administration) (1996) Osmanlı Aile Yapısı (Family structure in the Ottoman Empire) (2000) Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nda İktisadi ve Sosyal Değişim (Economic and social change in the Ottoman Empire) (2001) Osmanlı Barışı (Ottoman peace) (2004) Osmanlı’yı Yeniden Keşfetmek 1 and 2 (Rediscovering the Ottoman Empire) (2006) Kırk Ambar Sohbetleri (Kırk ambar conversations) (2006) Eski Dünya Seyahatnamesi (Travelogue of the old world) (2007) Private and Royal Life in the Ottoman Palace (2014, Blue Dome Press) |